August 11, 2025 • 16 mins
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Hello, Puzzlers! Puzzling with us today: cartoonist Emily Flake!
Join host A.J. Jacobs and his guests as they puzzle–and laugh–their way through new spins on old favorites, like anagrams and palindromes, as well as quirky originals such as “Ask AI” and audio rebuses.
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"The Puzzler with A.J. Jacobs" is distributed by iHeartPodcasts and is a co-production with Neuhaus Ideas.
Our executive producers are Neely Lohmann and Adam Neuhaus of Neuhaus Ideas, and Lindsay Hoffman of iHeart Podcasts.
The show is produced by Jody Avirgan and Brittani Brown of Roulette Productions.
Our Chief Puzzle Officer is Greg Pliska. Our associate producer is Andrea Schoenberg.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello puzzlers. Before we start puzzling today, I wanted to
let you know we are cooking up some big plans
for the puzzler community, and in order to ensure that
it's what you want, we need your input. So we've
put together a short survey which you can find in
the show notes. It's really quick, just three minutes, but
(00:22):
it will be a huge help in letting us know
what you want so that we can deliver just that.
Thank you, Hello puzzlers. I'm thinking maybe we start with
a little warm up puzzle and that is this what
word comes after corn, snow and dandruff. This is the
(00:46):
same word that can fill in the blank corn blank,
snow blank and dandriff blank. I think our guests.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Is I feel personally attacked by this.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
Listen, we are very pro whatever the word is. I'm
not going to say in favor of it. Whatever it is,
the answer and more puzzling goodness after the break, Hello puzzler,
was Welcome back to the Puzzler podcast. The standing ovation
(01:20):
after your puzzle eleven o'clock number. I am your host,
AJ Jacobs, and I'm here, of course the chief puzzle Officer,
Greg Cliska. Greg before the break, we asked a warm
up question which was actually apparently an attack on our guests,
but not intentionally. The question was what is the word
that comes after corn, snow or dandriff.
Speaker 3 (01:44):
The first thing I thought it was dog, and then
of course I got snow dog. I thought that was
a stretch, but dandrift dog is a real stretch. I'm
glad that we're pro dandriff, though.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
I've got my life.
Speaker 4 (01:57):
Those are all flakes.
Speaker 3 (01:59):
Aren't they?
Speaker 1 (01:59):
There are all types of flakes, and uh, as you
might have inferred, that is not just a random word.
It happens to be the last name of our wonderful
guest today, Emily Flake. She's an author, a comedian, a cartoonist,
publish dozens of cartoons, the New Yorker, author of the
hilarious book Mama Try. She created a deck of writing
(02:22):
prompt cards called Joke in the Box, which I want
to talk about. Please welcome Emily Flake.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
Hello, Hi, I'm so happy to be here. And honestly,
I got that puzzle right away because each of those
clues was an insult that was leveled at me in
elementary school. So thank you for that.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
Okay, holler guys, No before you came on, I will
say flake. Snowflake I think has a positive because every
snowflake is unique. Remember that. Absolutely, you sort of hijacked
into oh your snowflake, you're too sensitive. Uh, but diesnmean
flake in German? Is that the similar? Uh?
Speaker 2 (03:02):
That's a really good question and one that I should
be able to answer, considering I took like two years
of German in high school. I kisnicked?
Speaker 1 (03:11):
That mean? Who knows?
Speaker 2 (03:13):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
All right, well, we'll look into that. Maybe Andrea, our
senior puzzler, can look into the origin of the words flake.
But in the meantime, I just had one opening question,
It's kind of a loaded question, which is do you
think cartoons and puzzles are similar? Because I do? I
do think so.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
Oh yeah, I absolutely think they're similar. I think the
process by which you go about writing a cartoon is
very similar to the process by which you go about
solving a puzzle. It's all, you know, just sort of
like making things fit efficiently. Just so. Also, people who
write or draw cartoons tend to be, like, you know,
word nerds on some level or another, Like yeah, the two.
(03:55):
The Venn diagram is basically a circle.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
Right, Yeah, I think I talked about it and Greg
and I wrote a book about puzzles, and I think
the example I gave. I don't know if you've ever
seen the cartoon. It was the four characters from Wizard
of Oz and they're all eating ice cream and three
of them are clutching their heads in pain, and the
(04:19):
Scarecrow is just eating away happily. And at first I
was like, I don't get it. I don't get it.
You have to puzzle it out. It's scarecrow doesn't.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
Have doesn't have a Yeah, I cannot.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
Yeah, brain freeze from eating ice cream. So that's pretty good.
It's an ice puzzle. I mean, it's not the most
hilarious cartoon ever, but it made me chuckle because I
felt like, oh, I figured it out.
Speaker 3 (04:43):
There's an elegance to that. You've used the word efficiency,
which kind of the side of the same coin. Right,
there's nothing wasted. Everything you need is there, just enough
is there to make it happen, which is what a
good puzzle should be.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
The same way, absolutely right, Absolutely well, all right, We've
got lots more to talk about cartoons and puzzles, but
we also are here to play some some puzzles, So
let's play. We've got one based on your name. Now
I feel guilty, now the.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
Don't please, I feel honored, triggered, but honored.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
It's a very.
Speaker 3 (05:20):
Tough line to hit them.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
Yeah. Well, it's just such a great name for wordplay,
because first of all, you take away one letter from
your last name and you can get three different words. Yeah,
so you've thought about that.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
I've misspelled my own name so many times.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
You take away the ash from flake and it's lake.
You take away the L and it's shake. You take
away the E at the end and it's flak.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
Exactly. I could be so many people as a Gemini.
I appreciate the flexible.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
There you go.
Speaker 3 (05:53):
In fact, if you were doing pr like on Lake
on Ontario, and you weren't really doing it, you would
be a fakely flack.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
Oh no, wow, well played exactly. Hats off to you,
mister Plisko.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
Well we are. We're going to go a little less intense.
We're only going to do two of those for our puzzle.
We're going to have the answers are all going to
be two word phrases, and the second word is going
to be the same word as the first minus a letter.
So for flake Flack, the clue might have been criticism
(06:31):
of New Yorker cartoonist Emily, which again I don't know
why you would criticize you.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
Or so many reasons.
Speaker 1 (06:41):
Well, we could do anti aircraft fire against New Yorker
cartoonist Emily, but I would That's that's even worse. You
have to get to our puzzle, which is two word
phrases where you lose a letter in the second word.
So are you ready, Yes, Merrill's throat infection actress Mineral's
(07:01):
throat infection.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
Okay, you told me to take a beat, so here
is me taking a beat. Well done, beat, streep strip.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
That is correct. That is correct. I didn't take a
beat when I answered.
Speaker 3 (07:14):
Of course, I heard Merrill, and I thought Merrill Lynch,
and so I was way down a different path, par Lunch.
There isn't really a there.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
All right, Ariana's B plus on her high school paper.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
Grande's great, Great you got.
Speaker 3 (07:33):
Oh are all of these people's last name?
Speaker 1 (07:36):
No? I just thought this is a Jewish religious leader
who preaches to bunnies.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
Yeb by rabbit also a very cute visual.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
Yeah, yes, that is true. That is true.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
That would the yamaco go between the ears or would
this ears be tucked on?
Speaker 1 (07:55):
Oh that's a good question question. Yeah, well I think
the rabbi has to wear yamuka. Maybe the rabbit still
a scam involving Nichols and dimes.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
Scam involving Nichols and dimes.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
Hmmm, oh good.
Speaker 3 (08:15):
This is giving shorter words than the previous one.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
That's so I spent a lot of time thinking change.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
Ah, yeah, you had to change over.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
Went down a brief Barbara Aaron Rick rabbit hole in
my brain. But I'm back now.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
I loved that book, Nicol, and it's a great book.
This is a Scottish extended family with excellent hygiene habits.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
Clean clan, sorry, clean plan.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
Very good, very good. How about billionaire Warrens s morgasboard.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
Oh let's see billionaire.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
Word?
Speaker 2 (09:01):
Okay, Oh, buffet's buffett, buffets's.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
Buffet because more and buffett has two t's, so you
got to take off the last or second last. I'm
okay with either and buffet and my grandmother did pronounce
it buffet, So buffet buffett. We're buffet buffy. Yeah, we've
got a bad habit when singing what is a bad
habit when singing?
Speaker 2 (09:28):
Oh, bad habit when singing?
Speaker 3 (09:31):
Hmmm, like, what's a what's a word for bad habit?
Speaker 1 (09:37):
Yeah? What is sinful habit? So it has that? Oh?
Speaker 2 (09:44):
Oh, sinful habit?
Speaker 3 (09:47):
Ooh, sloth no general term for a thing. A sinful
habit a thing that you can't stop doing that's bad
for you.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
It was.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
It's also heroine smoking.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
Murders bad habits. I agree, I'm gonna.
Speaker 2 (10:06):
A bad habit when singing.
Speaker 1 (10:08):
Well, think of the TV show about singing, not American Idol,
but the other famous one, the.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
Oh I feel like my brain just fell out of
my ears. This is terribory.
Speaker 3 (10:21):
We see no evidence of that. Oh my god, think
about Okay, let's think about a different TV show. Okay,
set in Miami.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
Oh vice, voice, oh voice.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
Okay. This is hypothetical. This is if, and I say,
if Musk is ever convicted of a serious crime, hm m,
he might be called this his nicknames Musk nice Musk.
So you know the most famous Musk. You're right, so
(10:56):
you and then you gotta add a letter.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
To Yeah that's the second.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
Yeah, well done, all right, we got just two more.
How about a lunch or dinner for those who won
the first, second, or third place at the Olympics. Oh, yes,
exact metal meal. I'll take either, all right. And finally
(11:27):
we'll end with uh A journey to find edible cow
stomachs trip trip, well done, you cruise through those.
Speaker 3 (11:41):
Could that also be the journey to get away from
the edible cow stomach I suppose.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
So I suppose I'm a I'm a vegetarian. So I
did go to a restaurant once that served vegetarian tripe,
like and I'm liked. Is there really a demand for
tofu tripe?
Speaker 2 (11:57):
Is that something that I'm in Listen, If there's a
niche that you can think of, there's somebody who needs
it filled. So I'm sure there is some sort of
demands for vegetarian tripe out there.
Speaker 1 (12:08):
Good. So I want to go back to cartoons for
one minute before we let you go. I love that
people should buy this card deck by Emily called Joke
in a Box How to Write and draw Jokes, because
I feel it's also, as I said, very puzzlly. Can
you explain the what is it what isn't it? Method?
Speaker 2 (12:34):
Sure? I mean one of the things that I like
to do when I'm trying to come up with ideas
and feeling kind of suck is just pick anything, pick
a seagull, and think about what it is and what
it isn't. And this is just kind of to start
like plowing stuff into the dirt and hoping it turns
into into mulch, fertile fertile mulch. But so thinking about
(12:57):
a seagull, Okay, it's a it's a bird. It lives
on the beach. They're usually white and gray. They eat trash. Like,
just thinking about all the things that you know about
a seagull and then thinking about all the things that
a seagull isn't and ways that it would be funny
if these things were juxtapitope, wow, juxtaposed, thank you, And
(13:21):
so okay, if it's a seagull, like you know what
happens if it's transferred to a lake, a river, of bathtub,
other bodies of water. What if you have drain gulls?
Speaker 1 (13:32):
You know.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
What if you just have a personal garbage gull, I
would personally find that very handy. Seagulls are one of
the birds that don't bum me out. A lot of
birds bumm me out. It's you know, you can think
about what size of seagull is and what if it
was a different size, what if it was absolutely enormous
or very very tiny. So it's just kind of a
(13:54):
way into thinking about the reality that surrounds you and
then tweaking it, give it, getting a different slant on it,
making it different in an unexpected way. And really all
of the exercises in not just my deck, but like
most joke writing, you know, manuals or helper books really
have a lot to do with, you know, putting yourself
(14:17):
in a mind frame where you can examine the world
around you and change it in a way that you
find amusing.
Speaker 1 (14:22):
I love it. I mean that I think is I
use that similar strategy when coming up with puzzles, So yeah,
I love it. Yeah. And you have an example in
your in your deck of bedtime stories, So what is it?
It's something that kids you read kids books, but what
if it wasn't a kid's book. What if you read
(14:42):
legal docs as a as a bedtime story? Or pentause
Forum is a bedtime story.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
So just a great for the more sophisticated child, yes,
or a.
Speaker 3 (14:53):
Very insomniac adult.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
I mean you, well, thank you, Emily Luck. We get
you back tomorrow. But in the meantime, I do have
one extra credit for the folks at home. This is
what it might be called if you shout at someone
to get out. You shout at someone to get out.
(15:17):
That's the extra credit. Come back tomorrow for the answer,
and come back for more of the delightful Emily Flake.
And in the meantime, if you have a hankering for
more puzzles, we've got Instagram at Hello Puzzlers with original
visual puzzles and puzzle news, and of course we'll see
(15:37):
you here tomorrow for more puzzling puzzles that will puzzle
you puzzlingly.
Speaker 4 (15:47):
Hey, puzzlers, it's Greg Pliska up from the Puzzle Lab
with the extra credit answer from our previous show. Juliana
Pache joined us once again to talk about black Crossword
and various other fun puzzles. In this case, we did
a puzzle where we changed the sh sound pache into
a sound as in pache. Your extra credit clue was
(16:10):
actually a two word phrase with two sh sounds. It's
the practice of grooming ovines for wool. When you change
those sounds to ch sounds, you get inexpensive sports chanting that,
of course, is sheep sharing, which becomes cheap cheering. But
there's no cheap cheering here. Our cheering is expensive and enthusiastic,
(16:33):
and we thank you for playing along with us.
Speaker 1 (16:36):
Catch you next time.
Hello puzzlers. Before we start puzzling today, I wanted to
let you know we are cooking up some big plans
for the puzzler community, and in order to ensure that
it's what you want, we need your input. So we've
put together a short survey which you can find in
the show notes. It's really quick, just three minutes, but
(00:22):
it will be a huge help in letting us know
what you want so that we can deliver just that.
Thank you, Hello puzzlers. I'm thinking maybe we start with
a little warm up puzzle and that is this what
word comes after corn, snow and dandruff. This is the
(00:46):
same word that can fill in the blank corn blank,
snow blank and dandriff blank. I think our guests.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Is I feel personally attacked by this.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
Listen, we are very pro whatever the word is. I'm
not going to say in favor of it. Whatever it is,
the answer and more puzzling goodness after the break, Hello puzzler,
was Welcome back to the Puzzler podcast. The standing ovation
(01:20):
after your puzzle eleven o'clock number. I am your host,
AJ Jacobs, and I'm here, of course the chief puzzle Officer,
Greg Cliska. Greg before the break, we asked a warm
up question which was actually apparently an attack on our guests,
but not intentionally. The question was what is the word
that comes after corn, snow or dandriff.
Speaker 3 (01:44):
The first thing I thought it was dog, and then
of course I got snow dog. I thought that was
a stretch, but dandrift dog is a real stretch. I'm
glad that we're pro dandriff, though.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
I've got my life.
Speaker 4 (01:57):
Those are all flakes.
Speaker 3 (01:59):
Aren't they?
Speaker 1 (01:59):
There are all types of flakes, and uh, as you
might have inferred, that is not just a random word.
It happens to be the last name of our wonderful
guest today, Emily Flake. She's an author, a comedian, a cartoonist,
publish dozens of cartoons, the New Yorker, author of the
hilarious book Mama Try. She created a deck of writing
(02:22):
prompt cards called Joke in the Box, which I want
to talk about. Please welcome Emily Flake.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
Hello, Hi, I'm so happy to be here. And honestly,
I got that puzzle right away because each of those
clues was an insult that was leveled at me in
elementary school. So thank you for that.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
Okay, holler guys, No before you came on, I will
say flake. Snowflake I think has a positive because every
snowflake is unique. Remember that. Absolutely, you sort of hijacked
into oh your snowflake, you're too sensitive. Uh, but diesnmean
flake in German? Is that the similar? Uh?
Speaker 2 (03:02):
That's a really good question and one that I should
be able to answer, considering I took like two years
of German in high school. I kisnicked?
Speaker 1 (03:11):
That mean? Who knows?
Speaker 2 (03:13):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
All right, well, we'll look into that. Maybe Andrea, our
senior puzzler, can look into the origin of the words flake.
But in the meantime, I just had one opening question,
It's kind of a loaded question, which is do you
think cartoons and puzzles are similar? Because I do? I
do think so.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
Oh yeah, I absolutely think they're similar. I think the
process by which you go about writing a cartoon is
very similar to the process by which you go about
solving a puzzle. It's all, you know, just sort of
like making things fit efficiently. Just so. Also, people who
write or draw cartoons tend to be, like, you know,
word nerds on some level or another, Like yeah, the two.
(03:55):
The Venn diagram is basically a circle.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
Right, Yeah, I think I talked about it and Greg
and I wrote a book about puzzles, and I think
the example I gave. I don't know if you've ever
seen the cartoon. It was the four characters from Wizard
of Oz and they're all eating ice cream and three
of them are clutching their heads in pain, and the
(04:19):
Scarecrow is just eating away happily. And at first I
was like, I don't get it. I don't get it.
You have to puzzle it out. It's scarecrow doesn't.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
Have doesn't have a Yeah, I cannot.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
Yeah, brain freeze from eating ice cream. So that's pretty good.
It's an ice puzzle. I mean, it's not the most
hilarious cartoon ever, but it made me chuckle because I
felt like, oh, I figured it out.
Speaker 3 (04:43):
There's an elegance to that. You've used the word efficiency,
which kind of the side of the same coin. Right,
there's nothing wasted. Everything you need is there, just enough
is there to make it happen, which is what a
good puzzle should be.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
The same way, absolutely right, Absolutely well, all right, We've
got lots more to talk about cartoons and puzzles, but
we also are here to play some some puzzles, So
let's play. We've got one based on your name. Now
I feel guilty, now the.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
Don't please, I feel honored, triggered, but honored.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
It's a very.
Speaker 3 (05:20):
Tough line to hit them.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
Yeah. Well, it's just such a great name for wordplay,
because first of all, you take away one letter from
your last name and you can get three different words. Yeah,
so you've thought about that.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
I've misspelled my own name so many times.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
You take away the ash from flake and it's lake.
You take away the L and it's shake. You take
away the E at the end and it's flak.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
Exactly. I could be so many people as a Gemini.
I appreciate the flexible.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
There you go.
Speaker 3 (05:53):
In fact, if you were doing pr like on Lake
on Ontario, and you weren't really doing it, you would
be a fakely flack.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
Oh no, wow, well played exactly. Hats off to you,
mister Plisko.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
Well we are. We're going to go a little less intense.
We're only going to do two of those for our puzzle.
We're going to have the answers are all going to
be two word phrases, and the second word is going
to be the same word as the first minus a letter.
So for flake Flack, the clue might have been criticism
(06:31):
of New Yorker cartoonist Emily, which again I don't know
why you would criticize you.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
Or so many reasons.
Speaker 1 (06:41):
Well, we could do anti aircraft fire against New Yorker
cartoonist Emily, but I would That's that's even worse. You
have to get to our puzzle, which is two word
phrases where you lose a letter in the second word.
So are you ready, Yes, Merrill's throat infection actress Mineral's
(07:01):
throat infection.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
Okay, you told me to take a beat, so here
is me taking a beat. Well done, beat, streep strip.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
That is correct. That is correct. I didn't take a
beat when I answered.
Speaker 3 (07:14):
Of course, I heard Merrill, and I thought Merrill Lynch,
and so I was way down a different path, par Lunch.
There isn't really a there.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
All right, Ariana's B plus on her high school paper.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
Grande's great, Great you got.
Speaker 3 (07:33):
Oh are all of these people's last name?
Speaker 1 (07:36):
No? I just thought this is a Jewish religious leader
who preaches to bunnies.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
Yeb by rabbit also a very cute visual.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
Yeah, yes, that is true. That is true.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
That would the yamaco go between the ears or would
this ears be tucked on?
Speaker 1 (07:55):
Oh that's a good question question. Yeah, well I think
the rabbi has to wear yamuka. Maybe the rabbit still
a scam involving Nichols and dimes.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
Scam involving Nichols and dimes.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
Hmmm, oh good.
Speaker 3 (08:15):
This is giving shorter words than the previous one.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
That's so I spent a lot of time thinking change.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
Ah, yeah, you had to change over.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
Went down a brief Barbara Aaron Rick rabbit hole in
my brain. But I'm back now.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
I loved that book, Nicol, and it's a great book.
This is a Scottish extended family with excellent hygiene habits.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
Clean clan, sorry, clean plan.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
Very good, very good. How about billionaire Warrens s morgasboard.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
Oh let's see billionaire.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
Word?
Speaker 2 (09:01):
Okay, Oh, buffet's buffett, buffets's.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
Buffet because more and buffett has two t's, so you
got to take off the last or second last. I'm
okay with either and buffet and my grandmother did pronounce
it buffet, So buffet buffett. We're buffet buffy. Yeah, we've
got a bad habit when singing what is a bad
habit when singing?
Speaker 2 (09:28):
Oh, bad habit when singing?
Speaker 3 (09:31):
Hmmm, like, what's a what's a word for bad habit?
Speaker 1 (09:37):
Yeah? What is sinful habit? So it has that? Oh?
Speaker 2 (09:44):
Oh, sinful habit?
Speaker 3 (09:47):
Ooh, sloth no general term for a thing. A sinful
habit a thing that you can't stop doing that's bad
for you.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
It was.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
It's also heroine smoking.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
Murders bad habits. I agree, I'm gonna.
Speaker 2 (10:06):
A bad habit when singing.
Speaker 1 (10:08):
Well, think of the TV show about singing, not American Idol,
but the other famous one, the.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
Oh I feel like my brain just fell out of
my ears. This is terribory.
Speaker 3 (10:21):
We see no evidence of that. Oh my god, think
about Okay, let's think about a different TV show. Okay,
set in Miami.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
Oh vice, voice, oh voice.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
Okay. This is hypothetical. This is if, and I say,
if Musk is ever convicted of a serious crime, hm m,
he might be called this his nicknames Musk nice Musk.
So you know the most famous Musk. You're right, so
(10:56):
you and then you gotta add a letter.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
To Yeah that's the second.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
Yeah, well done, all right, we got just two more.
How about a lunch or dinner for those who won
the first, second, or third place at the Olympics. Oh, yes,
exact metal meal. I'll take either, all right. And finally
(11:27):
we'll end with uh A journey to find edible cow
stomachs trip trip, well done, you cruise through those.
Speaker 3 (11:41):
Could that also be the journey to get away from
the edible cow stomach I suppose.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
So I suppose I'm a I'm a vegetarian. So I
did go to a restaurant once that served vegetarian tripe,
like and I'm liked. Is there really a demand for
tofu tripe?
Speaker 2 (11:57):
Is that something that I'm in Listen, If there's a
niche that you can think of, there's somebody who needs
it filled. So I'm sure there is some sort of
demands for vegetarian tripe out there.
Speaker 1 (12:08):
Good. So I want to go back to cartoons for
one minute before we let you go. I love that
people should buy this card deck by Emily called Joke
in a Box How to Write and draw Jokes, because
I feel it's also, as I said, very puzzlly. Can
you explain the what is it what isn't it? Method?
Speaker 2 (12:34):
Sure? I mean one of the things that I like
to do when I'm trying to come up with ideas
and feeling kind of suck is just pick anything, pick
a seagull, and think about what it is and what
it isn't. And this is just kind of to start
like plowing stuff into the dirt and hoping it turns
into into mulch, fertile fertile mulch. But so thinking about
(12:57):
a seagull, Okay, it's a it's a bird. It lives
on the beach. They're usually white and gray. They eat trash. Like,
just thinking about all the things that you know about
a seagull and then thinking about all the things that
a seagull isn't and ways that it would be funny
if these things were juxtapitope, wow, juxtaposed, thank you, And
(13:21):
so okay, if it's a seagull, like you know what
happens if it's transferred to a lake, a river, of bathtub,
other bodies of water. What if you have drain gulls?
Speaker 1 (13:32):
You know.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
What if you just have a personal garbage gull, I
would personally find that very handy. Seagulls are one of
the birds that don't bum me out. A lot of
birds bumm me out. It's you know, you can think
about what size of seagull is and what if it
was a different size, what if it was absolutely enormous
or very very tiny. So it's just kind of a
(13:54):
way into thinking about the reality that surrounds you and
then tweaking it, give it, getting a different slant on it,
making it different in an unexpected way. And really all
of the exercises in not just my deck, but like
most joke writing, you know, manuals or helper books really
have a lot to do with, you know, putting yourself
(14:17):
in a mind frame where you can examine the world
around you and change it in a way that you
find amusing.
Speaker 1 (14:22):
I love it. I mean that I think is I
use that similar strategy when coming up with puzzles, So yeah,
I love it. Yeah. And you have an example in
your in your deck of bedtime stories, So what is it?
It's something that kids you read kids books, but what
if it wasn't a kid's book. What if you read
(14:42):
legal docs as a as a bedtime story? Or pentause
Forum is a bedtime story.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
So just a great for the more sophisticated child, yes,
or a.
Speaker 3 (14:53):
Very insomniac adult.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
I mean you, well, thank you, Emily Luck. We get
you back tomorrow. But in the meantime, I do have
one extra credit for the folks at home. This is
what it might be called if you shout at someone
to get out. You shout at someone to get out.
(15:17):
That's the extra credit. Come back tomorrow for the answer,
and come back for more of the delightful Emily Flake.
And in the meantime, if you have a hankering for
more puzzles, we've got Instagram at Hello Puzzlers with original
visual puzzles and puzzle news, and of course we'll see
(15:37):
you here tomorrow for more puzzling puzzles that will puzzle
you puzzlingly.
Speaker 4 (15:47):
Hey, puzzlers, it's Greg Pliska up from the Puzzle Lab
with the extra credit answer from our previous show. Juliana
Pache joined us once again to talk about black Crossword
and various other fun puzzles. In this case, we did
a puzzle where we changed the sh sound pache into
a sound as in pache. Your extra credit clue was
(16:10):
actually a two word phrase with two sh sounds. It's
the practice of grooming ovines for wool. When you change
those sounds to ch sounds, you get inexpensive sports chanting that,
of course, is sheep sharing, which becomes cheap cheering. But
there's no cheap cheering here. Our cheering is expensive and enthusiastic,
(16:33):
and we thank you for playing along with us.
Speaker 1 (16:36):
Catch you next time.
Hosts And Creators
Greg Pliska
A.J. Jacobs
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